A team led by Science Applications International Corp., San Diego, has been awarded $8.3 million by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop a prototype of a passive sonar.

SAIC's ocean sciences division, part of the company's technology research group, will lead the work, which is estimated to take 21 months. Team members include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Metron Inc., the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Verizon Communications Inc.'s BBN Technologies.

Passive sonar involves listening for noise produced by underwater targets of interest. Unlike traditional sonar, it does not involve sending out acoustic signals, which can give away the sender's location and may have negative environmental effects.

This work follows up an earlier contract in which the team developed and tested signal processing algorithms that give a fleet of submarines more mobility while collectively tracking targets. This phase of the work will test a real-time prototype at sea.